When the Mind and Body Don't Match
by angelrider13
Summary: Second in "Tears and Blood Makes a Peace Hard Won" series. Waking up in a boy's body is not at all what she expected. Predictably, it sets the tone for her second life. SI/OC fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all!**

 **Here is the second installment of the "Tears and Blood Make a Peace Hard Won" series!**

 **This part of the series is where we'll see Itachi adjusting to life as, well, Itachi.**

 **So, fair warning, pronouns are a bit mixed up here. When things are from Itachi's POV, we're using "she/her" and when things are from everyone else's POV, we're using "he/him". I did not mix up the pronouns - this is totally on purpose.**

 **That said, the switch might be a bit jarring, I'm giving you guys a heads up.**

 **Let me know what you think!**

* * *

Her name is Uchiha Itachi and she is the son of the Clan Head Uchiha Fugaku and his wife, Mikoto.

Except that she isn't.

She isn't a boy and her name isn't Uchiha Itachi and she doesn't _want_ it to be. She watched and read that story and she wants nothing to do with this particular role, thank you very much.

But she doesn't get much say in the matter.

Everyone calls her Itachi, everyone calls her a boy, and as a toddler, she doesn't have the right words to correct them. And even if she did, what was she supposed to say?

She doesn't want anything to do with this clan, with this story, with this _life_.

She wants to go back.

Back to _her_ family, _her_ life.

At the very least, she wants to go back to being dead.

She doesn't remember much about it other than darkness and sleep and peace, but whatever it is, it has to better than whatever staying here will lead to.

She knows this story.

Knows the role Itachi plays in it.

And she knows with all her heart that it is not something she can pull off – nor is it something she _wants_ to.

She's terrified of what this means and in her tiny body, that terror translates the same way her grief does: lots of tears and screaming. She misses her family, still sees that last horrible moment every time she closes her eyes, every time she stops long enough to think. And if she isn't thinking about them, she's think about Itachi's life. Her new life. A life she has somehow been given or taken. She doesn't know, but she doesn't want it.

As with many things in this new life of hers, she isn't given a choice.

* * *

Mikoto is worried.

Itachi is already one and he acts nothing like she expected a baby too. He alternates between listless silence and horrible, heart wrenching sobbing.

She's taken her son to see doctors and specialists and none of them can give her an answer. Physically, Itachi is perfectly fine. They can't find anything wrong. But Mikoto thinks of bright red eyes glazed with tears and knows better. There is something wrong with her son and she has no idea what.

He's only a year old and Mikoto knows that he's already seen too much.

What she doesn't know is _how_.

How her little boy could possibly know such horrors when he wasn't even an hour old. Fugaku had poured over the clan archives for some kind of clue but had come back with nothing. There was no recorded mention of an Uchiha being born with Sharingan already active, let alone the Mangekyō Sharingan.

And yet.

Mikoto had wanted to keep it quiet, but as Clan Head, Fugaku had a duty to report such things to the Elders. So, naturally, the entire clan knows. Her stomach twists uncomfortably at the whispers about her son, about how he is already the pride of the clan, about how he will be the best of them.

He's a baby.

A tiny, untrained, soft baby.

Not for the first time, Mikoto finds herself wondering at the clan's priorities. Yes, they are a prominent shinobi clan. Yes, that skews priorities slightly. But this is the first time she's experiencing it from the point of view of a mother.

She does not like it.

Itachi is in one of his calmer moods at the moment, lying on the floor and staring blankly at the ceiling. She sighs, jolting slightly when her son's head turns towards the sound. She watches as he blinks, face scrunching up and she braces herself for the latest round of screaming. Instead, Itachi rolls over and pushes himself up on hands and knees and crawls over to her. When he reaches her, he sits back on the ground and stares up at her for a long moment.

Mikoto doesn't dare breathe, doesn't dare do anything that will trigger her son's tears. He's only a year old and he's already cried far too much.

Then, to her infinite surprise, Itachi raises his arms in a gesture that – if her son were any other child – means he wants to be picked up.

Mikoto stares at him.

Her son has lived his first year of life shying away from human contact. He screams when he is picked up, squirming and thrashing until he is put down again.

Itachi frowns up at her when she doesn't move, waving his arms to emphasize what he wants.

Hesitantly, she picks him up, holding him close. Itachi nods to himself and pats her cheeks with tiny hands.

"Kaa," he says, calm and easy and…pleased?

Mikoto feels tears burn her eyes and Itachi's face scrunches up in confusion.

"Kaa?"

Mikoto makes a choked sound and pulls her son against her. To her endless relief, Itachi lets her, his tiny arms wrapping around her as best they can. He makes a questioning sound even as he presses closer.

"Everything is alright, Ita-chan," she says, a helpless smile pulling at her lips, "Kaa-chan is just so happy."

She feels Itachi nod against her and she wonders how much her son really understands. She doesn't know what's caused this, why Itachi has suddenly reached out, but she can only hope it lasts.

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto is not her mother.

She already has a mother and she doesn't want another one. And she doesn't think that is going to change any time soon. If ever.

But Uchiha Mikoto _is_ Itachi's mother.

And as far as she knows, her son has shunned her his entire life, spending his time screaming at nothing or lying around listlessly.

She isn't being fair.

She still doesn't want anything to do with this life.

But she sees the frown that constantly pulls at Mikoto's mouth and the worry that shines in her dark eyes.

And she feels guilty.

Mikoto isn't the one who pulled her into this; she isn't responsible for what's happened. And yet she is punishing her. She's pulled away from every touch, from every comfort, from the moment she woke up here. She didn't want to be comforted, didn't want to be here, didn't want to deal with anything.

She still doesn't.

But she isn't the only one involved.

So she promises herself that she will unbend enough to let others in.

Mikoto and Fugaku are not her parents and will never be her parents, not really.

But they are Itachi's parents.

And she has been so busy grieving for things she knows she can't get back that she has denied them that.

No more.

* * *

Fugaku walks into the living room and freezes at the sight before him.

His wife and son are sitting on the floor playing with blocks. Mikoto is talking to him and interacting and Itachi is _responding_. They are building some kind of tower with the blocks and Itachi is smiling and participating and babbling nonsensical answers to his mother's cooed comments.

His breath hitches in his throat and his chest feels tight.

Then the block tower falls over and Itachi goes silent, blinking at the pile of toys. He can see the way Mikoto braces herself for the tears, for the screaming that has plagued this entire year and Fugaku finds himself holding his breath.

But then Itachi claps his hands together and _laughs_.

Mikoto stares at their son, eyes wet, and laughs along with him. She looks up and catches sight of him and smiles and he can see the relief, the hope in her expression and he feels his heart skip a beat. It's been so long since Mikoto has smiled.

Itachi notices Mikoto's look and turns towards him.

And then the most breathtaking, beautiful thing happens.

His son's face lights up at the sight of him, his tiny mouth pulling into a smile as he scrambles, crawling over to him as fast as his little limbs will allow. Then he sits at his feet and reaches up to him.

"Tou!" he says.

Fugaku goes slowly to his knees before his child and leans down so that they are eye level with each other.

"Hello, Itachi," he says, not caring that his voice is shaking or that his eyes are burning.

Itachi beams at him, tiny hands coming up to pat his cheeks.

"Tou," he says again, firmly, nodding to himself before he leans in and wraps his arms around Fugaku as much as he can.

Fugaku freezes, eyes flying over to Mikoto. His wife is watching them with a smile, tears streaming down her cheeks and she mimes a hug. Very, very carefully, he wraps his arms around his son and pulls him into his lap and tries not to weep in pure relief when Itachi goes willingly, leaning into his hold instead of breaking down screaming.

Instead, his son snuggles closer and pats his chest and completely relaxes into his arms with a content hum.

He's holding his son.

He's holding his son and his son is letting him.

Mikoto has moved to sit beside them and is watching them both with a smile that he has seen so little of this past year but hasn't left her face since he stepped into the room. Itachi stirs against him and reaches out to her.

"Kaa," he says.

Mikoto laughs lightly. "I should hug too?" she asks.

Itachi nods with all the seriousness that an infant can and Mikoto wraps her arms around them both. Fugaku leans into her and basks in the warmth of his family.

His son's voice, so quiet that he almost misses it, tears him from his thoughts.

"S'rry," he says.

He blinks and trades looks with Mikoto before they both glance down at their son.

"Itachi?" Mikoto asks softly, smoothing a hand over his dark hair.

Itachi reaches out and wipes at the tear tracks on his mother's cheek. "Sa' no," he says solemnly, "S'rry."

Fugaku and Mikoto stare at their son in shock.

"Sa' no," he says again when they don't reply.

Mikoto finds her voice first. "We aren't sad, sweetie," she says.

Itachi makes a noise of protest. "Sa' no," he repeats firmly.

"Okay, Itachi," Fugaku says, "We won't be sad."

Mikoto looks at him helplessly and Fugaku knows that the same thoughts are running through her head.

How can he tell? How can Itachi understand what is happening? Or are they just reading too much into it?

But he thinks of red, red eyes and wonders.

"You won't be sad either?" he asks, prodding, testing.

Itachi blinks at him in surprise before his face scrunches up in a pout.

"Ita-chan?" Mikoto asks when the boy stays silent.

Itachi looks at her and nods slowly and says very carefully, "Try."

Mikoto smiles at him and kisses his forehead. "That's all we ask, Ita-chan."

And for the first time since Itachi was born, Fugaku hopes.

* * *

 **Thoughts?**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Elri**


	2. Chapter 2

**New chapter!**

* * *

A large majority of her toys look like ninja tools.

Rubber shuriken. Wooden kunai.

She has no illusions about her future. She knows she's going to be a shinobi – she doesn't have a choice in the matter. For all it was never actually addressed in canon, she knows that Itachi didn't either.

Itachi was the son of the Clan Head of one of the Founding Shinobi Clans of a Shinobi Village and as much as she may not wish it, that same role is now hers. She's come to terms with it. Mostly. The part about becoming a ninja anyway. The rest of it…she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it.

For now, she chews on the rubber shuriken because her gums hurt and she's tired of crying over everything. Though she now has a new understanding of the suffering teething infants go through – her mouth aches constantly and she only feels relief when she's chewing on something. The best thing though, is when Mikoto puts a chilled spoon in her mouth and presses down gently on her gums. It's heaven.

She is very glad that she doesn't remember this from the first time around and she prays that her teeth finish coming in soon.

* * *

She hates baths.

Well, that's not entirely true.

She likes baths, loves them even. Or at least she did Before. She still likes the way the warm water feels against her skin and how relaxing it can be. But it's harder to enjoy that part now.

So it's not so much that she hates baths; more like she hates being naked.

When she's wearing clothes, when she's covered, she can pretend. She can ignore the weight between her legs that's not supposed to be there because she can't see it. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. But during bath time, there's nothing for her to hide behind, nothing she can use to protect herself from the knowledge that her body isn't really _hers_.

And she _hates_ that.

So, in turn, bath time become something she hates as well.

Mikoto notices of course and asks her about it like any parent would. Not to say that she makes bath time difficult, but she becomes noticeably unhappy and given how the beginning of this life went, Itachi's mother is reasonably concerned.

"What's wrong, Ita-chan?" Mikoto asks as she glares down at her lap through the water.

She blinks and turns her eyes towards the woman, staring for a long moment, debating on what to say.

Finally, she says, "W'ong," and points down at her lap.

Mikoto's brow furrows in confusion. "Is something wrong with the water, sweetie? Is it too warm?"

She shakes her head. "I w'ong," she says seriously, "No boy no."

Mikoto's confusion doesn't dissipate and her lips tug down at the corners. "What do you mean, Itachi?"

"I gul," she says, "Like Kaa."

Mikoto blinks and then, to her frustrated disappointment, the woman laughs. "No, no, silly, Ita-chan," she says with a fond smile, "You're a boy – like Tou-chan."

She shakes her head because that's wrong, because Mikoto doesn't understand, because she's _not_ a boy and never will be. Her eyes sting and her throat burns and she wants to scream in anger and disappointment. She pushes back the tears because she's cried enough, damnit, and this is a ridiculous reason to start crying in the first place. She's an infant, a toddler – of course Mikoto doesn't understand what she's trying to say. She doesn't have the words to communicate what she means yet.

That doesn't stop the betrayal that lances through her heart even as Mikoto tries to sooth her.

"It's okay, Ita-chan," Mikoto says, "You can still be like Kaa-chan if you want."

That's not what she wants.

She wants to be a girl and she knows that it isn't Mikoto's fault that she doesn't understand. It's not anyone's fault. It's not. And yet.

She doesn't bring it up again.

The next time Mikoto asks her what's wrong at bath time, she simply shrugs and says, "No like baf."

* * *

She doesn't like the Elders.

Two of them came over for some reason or another; she didn't care enough to pay attention. Fugaku is Clan Head and that meant meetings upon meetings upon meetings. They disappear into the study and she forgets they're there, content to play games with Mikoto.

It's when they leave and catch sight of her that she starts paying them any attention.

Because the way they are looking at her is…not how one looks at a child.

There is awe in gaze, curiosity and wonder. But there is also something that looks a little too much like hunger in their expressions.

"So this is little Itachi-kun, then," one says, watching her with intense eyes.

She reaches for Mikoto without even thinking and the woman snatches her up, cradling her close to her chest as she rises to her feet, eyes hard and lips set in a displeased line. Fugaku, too, looks less than pleased.

"Yes, this is _my son_ ," he says and she'd have to be deaf not to hear the emphasis there.

For the briefest of moments, she swears Fugaku's eyes flash crimson.

The Elders startle, tearing their eyes away from her, smiles a little too kind to be genuine spreading across their faces.

"He's wonderful, Fugaku-dono," the other Elder says, "You must be proud."

"I am," Fugaku says shortly, "Now if that's all, it's getting rather late."

The dismissal is clear.

"Of course, Fugaku-dono," says the first Elder, "We won't take up any more of your time."

The pair of them bow and Fugaku sees them out.

"Fugaku," Mikoto starts when he returns, her brow furrowed.

Fugaku releases a slow breath. "I know."

She frowns as the tone. She doesn't know enough about current politics to know what's going on. The Uchiha aren't already suffering so terribly that they need to pin their hopes on a toddler are they?

"You never should have told them about Itachi's eyes," Mikoto says, thought there is no heat in her voice.

Fugaku just tips his head in acknowledgement, expression resigned.

Her brow furrows. Her eyes? What about them? Why would anyon –

Oh.

 _Oh._

She's an Uchiha.

She's an Uchiha, which means she has the Sharingan.

A power that was activated under emotionally stressful circumstances and an upgrade that came with witnessing the death of the person you loved most in the world.

She swallows at the implications.

"Tou?" she calls and she can't quite keep the quiver out of her voice even as she holds out a hand for him, the other firmly anchored in Mikoto's shirt.

Fugaku's eyes soften and he takes her hand. "Everything's alright, Itachi."

Her fingers curl around his thumb as she nods. "No like," she says.

Fugaku blinks before his lips curl up slightly. "I can't say I like them very much either," he agrees.

"Play?" she asks, hopeful. She doesn't like what those Elders brought into the room, the grim shadow that entered Fugaku's eyes or the stiff anger that entered Mikoto's. She wants it gone.

"Yeah, Tou-chan," Mikoto says, her voice light and her expression open again, "Play with us."

Fugaku sighs, but there's fond amusement in his expression. "If I must."

"Yes," she says imperiously, making Mikoto laugh and a smile bloom on Fugaku's face.

That's better.

* * *

 **Just wanted to add a little note here about the Red Eyes of Doom, in case anyone was wondering about the way I've handled.**

 **In canon, it's stated that they're activated under emotional stress and then upgraded when you kill the most important person to you. I've always found a flaw in this explanation because Itachi got Mangekyō as a result of Shisui's death, but Itachi didn't actually kill him - just watched him commit suicide. Now it's entirely possible that Itachi felt like he was the cause because he wasn't able to stop Shisui and that's what triggered the eyeball upgrade. But Itachi still never killed him.**

 **So that's where the idea that witnessing the death of Most Important Person = Eyeball Upgrade.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Elri**


	3. Chapter 3

**I live!**

 **Sorry for the delay everyone. I don't know how may of you follow my One Piece stories, but if you don't, the reason for my long absence was that repeated plagiarism of my work really turned me off writing for awhile. This is me trying to get back into the habit of writing. Thank you all for your patience.**

* * *

Relearning how to work her body is annoying.

Crawling was fairly easy to work out, but walking is another matter entirely. She's been here for roughly two years now and the best she can do with this body's tiny legs is waddle around. Judging by the looks she gets, she supposes that she's progressing far more quickly that an actual toddler would, but it is still frustrating. She knows what she wants, how she wants to move, but her body isn't cooperating with her.

Even worse is the fact that she has to learn language all over again. Her mind is still hardwired for English and it is not something anyone here speaks. The language here is not what she is used to - the structure is wrong, the sounds are off, and all the rules are _different._ She dreads relearning to read and write because she's seen the written language and it is far more complicated than she knows what to do with.

Still, given her physical age and the fact that she knew nothing of the language, she supposes that she's learning as well as a toddler can.

Her new mobility is something she likes to test because being stuck in the same room for the majority of your time is not as fun when you are mentally over two decades old. So even though she knows it probably scares Mikoto out of her mind, she wanders off every chance she gets.

It probably says something about this world when no one seems to notice or care that there is an unattended toddler wobbling around. She'll take all the freedom she can get though; she just wants a change of scenery.

She hears voices and the tone is jeering, goading - not teasing, because teasing can be lighthearted and is rarely ever cruel, but this is.

Brow furrowed, she turns and spots a group of boys, all years older than her, crowded around another boy who looks to be slightly younger than them. She can't understand everything they are saying, but she catches enough to understand their meaning. She blinks, looking around for someone older, to see if they can stop it and finds no one. When the boys get a little too loud, someone on the other side of the street glances over, but that's the extent of acknowledgement they get.

Moving closer, she finally catches a look at the younger boy's face.

She feels like she's been punched in the stomach.

Uchiha Obito.

A large part of her wants to recoil in terror - she knows who this boy is, what he will become. She knows that even if she wanted to, if she were braver perhaps, that she could not do anything to save him from the mission that pushes him into the arms of the enemy. She is too weak, too young, too small and it is physically impossible for her to change that.

She wants to flee, to run away and never look back. To hide away from this the same way she's trying to hide from everything else.

But.

This Obito is a boy. Not the man who is willing to burn the world to the ground for a fantasy, but a lonely little boy. Just a child.

A child who endures sneers and name calling and cruel words from his own clan.

A child who is unfamiliar with kindness, with people seeing him.

She presses her lips together and takes a deep breath.

For now, he is just a child.

For now, he is not someone to fear.

But he is someone who needs a friend.

Squaring her shoulders, she walks over to them, slipping past the older boys unnoticed, and reaches out to take Obito's hand.

He startles, looking down at her and she almost laughs at the double take he gives her, eyes going wide when he registers just who she is.

The other boys around them fall silent and stare at her with the same expressions of bewilderment.

They know who she is.

The whole clan knows who she is.

They whisper about her in a way that makes Mikoto's eyes go hard and Fugaku's expression go grim.

They talk about her even when she's right there.

She's the son of the Clan Head.

She's also apparently the youngest in clan history to activate the clan's kekkei genkai.

"Obi-nii," she says into the silence and delights in the looks that cross the older boys' faces even as the one she clings to stares at her open mouthed, "Play me. Pwa-misd."

"Itachi-kun," one of the boys starts to say.

She doesn't listen, she turns to him and glares and feels her eyes burn and all the boys around her pale and Obito's hand squeezes hers almost to the point of pain.

"No," she says, pointing at the boy, not even caring what he was going to try and say.

She heard his tone, he was talking down to her. She knows he was probably going to tell her to play with them instead or to leave Obito alone because he wasn't worth her time. She looks at each of them and memorizes their faces because even though the person who Obito will one day become frightens her, right now he's just a child.

So she hates these three on principle now.

* * *

Obito stares at the child that takes his hand with something like numb shock.

Uchiha Itachi, son of the Clan Head and future prodigy, had marched right up to them, taken his hand, and called him "Obi-nii" like they've known each other for ages.

He has never met Itachi in his life.

"Itachi-kun," Takashi starts to say in that 'I'm-older-and-therefore-better-than-you' voice that makes Obito bristle automatically.

Itachi turns to look at him and his eyes go crimson, three tomoe spinning lazily, as he glares up at Takashi. Obito feels his eyes go wide and his jaw drop. He's never seen the clan's eyes so close before and certainly not on a two year old before - looks like all those whispers about the Clan Heir being _born_ with the clan kekkei genkai fully developed hold truth after all.

"No," Itachi says firmly, pointing at Takashi in emphasis, "No like. You mean. Go 'way."

Takashi, Akio, and Daisuke stare at the toddler, pale and still and silent in the face of those red eyes - eyes none of them have for all they like to pretend.

" _Go 'way_ ," Itachi repeats when none of them move, eyes narrowing.

Spluttering, the older boys vanish and Obito stares after them in awed amusement.

"Okay?" Itachi asks, looking up at him with crimson eyes and giving his hand a little tug.

And that's when Obito realizes the entire thing was deliberate. Itachi saw what was happening - _understood_ what was happening - and decided to stop it. That's far more than most people do and those people are adults.

"Y-yeah," he manages around the sudden lump in his throat.

This is ridiculous, he's _eleven_. He is not going to cry over the fact that a two year old stood up for him.

Itachi nods at him, a frown pulling at his mouth as he raises his free hand to rub his eyes.

"Itachi?" he asks and the mentally kicks himself for assuming familiarity. Though, Itachi assumed it first, so maybe it's okay?

"Burns," Itachi says, voice dangerously close to a whine.

Obito swears.

Itachi is _two_.

Regardless of how amazing he might be, he's still a little kid and right now, the boy's eyes are still crimson, still spinning and Itachi clearly doesn't understand.

Obito kneels down in front of him. "Itachi, your Sharingan is still active," he says, and Itachi gives him a wide eyed look of confused surprise - he hadn't even realized what he'd done, "You need to stop channeling chakra to your eyes."

At least he thinks so. Obito only has the vaguest idea of how the Sharingan works.

Itachi blinks at him, brow furrowing. "Cha'ra? The shiny s'uff?"

Huh. He'd never thought of it that way, but it's not like the kid is wrong. "Yeah," he says, "Think you can do that?"

Itachi nods and closes his eyes, a look of concentration on his face.

Obito kind of wants to smush his cheeks together, it's so cute. Then the toddler's eyes flicker open, not a trace of red in sight, and he beams.

"Good job!" he says, eliciting a shy, but pleased smile from the little boy.

"Thank you," Itachi says, enunciating each sound carefully, "Burn gone now."

Obito waves away the gratitude. "You helped me first," he says.

"Help 'chother," the boy replies seriously and Obito has to stop himself from cooing, "Play now?"

He blinks. "Wait, you were serious about that?"

Itachi nods and takes Obito's face in his tiny hands. "Obi-nii frien'."

His eyes well up before he can stop them and he waves his hands. "Ah! Sorry, sorry! I'm fine! Just something in my eyes!"

He is a shinobi, damnit! He is _not_ going to start crying because a toddler decided to be his friend.

But Itachi just blinks at him in bewilderment before something in his expression sets and he leans in to press a kiss to Obito's forehead. Obito stills at the gesture, staring at the toddler before him as he says, very seriously. "No sad."

Obito takes a deep breath and releases it slowly, nodding as an involuntary smile pulls at his face. "Not sad, promise."

Itachi eyes him for a moment, like he's not really sure if he believes him, but then he nods and steps back, taking Obito's hand and pulling him down the street.

"Where are we going?" Obito asks, amused by the boy's determined stride.

Itachi grins at him. "Dunno. A'vnter."

* * *

Mikoto has been looking for Itachi all afternoon.

She swears, as soon as that boy learned to walk, you couldn't turn your back on him for three seconds or else he'd disappear.

And she knows that the Clan for the most part considers its children to be self-sufficient, toddler or otherwise, and the most they will do is keep an eye on them from a distance.

So Mikoto is surprised, and more than a little relieved, to find her son sitting on a bench outside a dango stall with a boy who has to be ten years his senior. There is a small plate with two half eaten sticks of dango between them and her son is watching the older boy attentively as he animatedly tells a story about something that sounds like a training mishap. The boy is clearly a shinobi, hitai-ate proudly displayed on his forehead. Mikoto is struggling to place his face, though the orange goggles are definitely familiar.

She watches, bemused, as Itachi goes to eat some of his snack and the boy pauses in his hand gestures, but not his story, to make sure her son can take a bite, holding the stick for him so that Itachi can get to the dango without poking himself.

It's the first time that she's actually seen Itachi invested in an interaction outside from herself and Fugaku.

Itachi is smiling and listening to this boy and it warms something in Mikoto's chest.

Not enough to make her forget her worry in the first place though.

"Itachi!" she calls as she makes her way over.

The boy's mouth snaps shut and his eyes swing around, going wide when they land on her. "Ah…Hello, Mikoto-san," he says sheepishly before turning to her son, "Looks like your mom found you, Itachi."

Itachi hums, eyeing her carefully and she can't figure out why. "'lo, Kaa-cha."

She sighs. "Itachi, you can't just run off like that," she scolds, "It's dangerous to wander around alone."

Her son frowns at her. "No 'lone," he says, pointing to the boy sitting next to him, "Have Obi-nii."

Mikoto blinks as the pieces click into place.

Obito. Asami's son. The one who lives alone. The one who most of the clan turn their noses up at because of his grades and poor chakra control and constant sunny smiles in the face of it all.

"Uh, Itachi," Obito is saying, "I don't think that's what your mom means…"

Itachi doesn't pay him any mind, staring her down with eyes too old for his face. "Obi-nii," he repeats seriously.

Mikoto feels a smile pulling up her lips without her permission. Itachi doesn't get attached to people, doesn't want anything to do with them for the most part. But it seems he's made a friend all on his own. And if that friend just so happens to be the clan pariah. Well.

"I can see that," she says, smiling at Obito, who freezes under her attention, "Thank you for looking after him, Obito-kun."

The boy flushes. "It's not a problem!" he blurts, "I mean he's a really nice kid and, uh, it was fun."

The smile he gives her is bright and sunny, but Mikoto is a mother and before that a shinobi, and she can see the uncertainty that lingers in the boy's eyes. She keeps her anger off her face like the professional she is, but inside, she's seething. She wants to collectively take the Clan in hand and brow beat them into submission.

She looks at these two boys before her – two _children_ for all that one of them is legally considered an adult because of the hitai-ate he wears proudly – and wonders what logic justifies this treatment. One revered before he can even crawl and the other an outcast long before he even entered the Academy. Accidents of birth that neither had any control over, isolated for something they did not choose and yet here they sit together, smiling.

"Well, if that's how you feel," she says to Obito, refusing to let her smile falter, "Perhaps you would like to babysit sometime?"

Obito stares at her in shock, but Itachi lights up like the sun. He reaches over and snags the older boy's shirt in his tiny hand and gives it a light tug.

"Play 'gain?" he asks when Obito turns to him.

"What?" he asks, obviously caught off guard by her question, but then he blinks and his eyes go wide and he swings around to face her again, "I mean, yes! I would like that, Mikoto-san!"

Itachi beams, looking entirely pleased with himself.

Mikoto laughs lightly. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, Obito-kun," she says, "In the meantime, we need to be heading home, Itachi."

Itachi pouts at her, but slides off the bench regardless, wrapping himself around Obito's legs. "Bye, Obi-nii."

Obito grins and ruffles his hair. "See ya later, Itachi. Try not to wander off so much, okay?"

Itachi just gives a non-committal hum to that and Mikoto sighs inwardly, already resigned to future scavenger hunts for her child.

"Thank you again, Obito-kun," she says, scooping up Itachi in one arm and setting him on her hip, turning down the street towards the house.

She feels more than sees Itachi waving over her shoulder.

Her son made a friend.

She smiles.

* * *

 **Hope this was worth the wait.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Elri**


End file.
